On 10 July 2024, the Thai government opened the public hearing on the draft of the New Electronic Transaction Act as considered by Law Reform Commission in the Second Reading (“Draft”).
After the conclusion of the previous public hearing in 2022 on the draft on the same matters, altered with some amendments, the new Draft is put forward for a public hearing with many eye-catching differences from the current legislations as set forth below:
- The Draft would automatically allow the transaction to take effect as soon as complying with conditions under the law without the Notification by Electronic Transactions Development Agency (“ETDA”), but if a person complies with the ETDA Notification, such person will be rewarded with the presumption of compliance; and
- The Draft introduced new rules governing electronic transferable records that possess a unique characteristic, such as control.
The current law is proved to be an obstacle that the law forces people to comply with and wait for the rules to be issued by the related authority, who might not be able to catch up with the influx of new technologies. As a result, the drafter aimed that the Draft would allow people to use new technology to create transaction without the need to wait for the related authority to issue the rules.